The present invention relates in general to methods and systems for analyzing selected chemical or physical traits via combinatorial techniques. Specifically, the present invention relates to a computer system and method for recording, organizing, and analyzing selected luminescent properties of lighting phosphors in the combinatorial synthesis and screening of such phosphors.
Combinatorial methodologies have been used in various industries for high-throughput production and screening of desired products with certain physical or chemical traits. A well-known example is combinatorial chemistry methods that have been widely utilized in the pharmaceutical industry for fast synthesizing and screening of chemical compounds and building compound libraries (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,186). Another example is a technique for, generating arrays of peptides and other molecules using light-directed, spatially-addressable synthesis (U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,854). More recently, combinatorial methodologies have been applied to inorganic materials in the form of thin films deposited or evaporated onto a substrate (U.S. Pat. No. 5,985,356). In this connection, methods and instruments have been developed to search for new phosphors in a high-throughput fashion (Sun, T., Biotechnology and Bioengineering Combinatorial Chemistry, 61, 4 (1998/1999), using a combination of a thin-film deposition and a masking strategy to generate a thin film spatially addressable library).
Phosphors, i.e., luminescent materials, convert a certain type of energy into electromagnetic radiation over thermal radiation. A phosphor is usually composed of a host lattice doped with fluorescent-active elements (activator) present in up to a few mole %. Phosphors have been widely used in fluorescent lamps, displays, scintillators, etc. Although the search for advanced phosphors started about a century ago, the new photonic technologies, including mercury-free fluorescent lamps, various flat panel displays, computed topography (CT), etc., require new phosphors with advanced properties such as, high quantum efficiency, good absorption of the excitation energy, adequate color coordinates, long lifetime, and low cost.
The discovery of advanced oxide phosphors with multiple superior qualities for display applications continues to be a challenge. The specific spectral properties, absorption, quantum efficiencies, and lumen maintenance depend on complex interactions between the excitation source, host lattice, structural defects, and fluorescent dopants. Luminescence properties are highly sensitive to the changes in dopant composition, host stoichiometry, and processing conditions. Consequently, the identification of phosphors that are ideally suited to the requirements of a given display technology is highly empirical.
Such empiricism demands high processing capacity both for synthesis and for screening of the phosphors. More importantly, the vast amount of data generated from the fast-speed synthesis and screening must be duly sorted, recorded, and analyzed to achieve the overall efficiency of this discovery process. It is impracticable to rely on conventional lab notebooks to track thousand of data entries, let alone to analyze and make sense of them. There is therefore a need for a computer system and method to enable high-throughput combinatory analysis of luminescent properties of phosphors, a need that parallels the need for combinatory chemical compound library systems in the pharmaceutical industry. The latter need has been met with the development of electronic compound libraries that support query and visualization of the chemical structure and other-properties of the compounds. The former need, however, remains unmet. The system and method required must be uniquely designed to analyze photo-metric properties and to seamlessly integrate into the synthesis and screening instrumentation.
There is provided a computer system for combinatorial synthesis, screening, and analysis of luminescent materials, which system comprises: a database having recorded therein information relating to said synthesis, said screening, said analysis, and results of said analysis; an analysis module performing analytic operations to derive said results; and an interface allowing a user to input instructions to said computer system and the computer system to present said information to the user, wherein said database, said analysis module, and said interface are inter-connected. Various alternative configurations of the computer system are provided in the following detailed descriptions.
There is also provided a method for combinatorial synthesis, screening, and analysis of luminescent materials, which method comprises: obtaining a first combinatory library of luminescent materials; digitally recording properties of said luminescent materials in said first combinatory library; and performing computerized analyses based on said properties and the information relating to said combinatorial synthesis and screening.
There is also provided a computer system for combinatorial synthesis, screening, and analysis of luminescent materials, which system comprises: a database means for recording information relating to said synthesis, said screening, said analysis, and results of said analysis; an analysis means for performing analytic operations to derive said results; and an interface means for allowing a user to input instructions to said computer system and the computer system to present said information to the user, wherein said database means, said analysis means, and said interface means are inter-connected.